222 General Notes. hus 
In 1896 Mr. Ridgway (Man. N. A. Birds, 2d ed., p. 602) separated the 
Louisiana Seaside Sparrows from A. m. peninsule as a distinct race, 
whose habitat is given as “coast of Louisiana (and coast of Texas during 
migration).” For this race he appropriates, in a subspecific sense, 
Audubon’s name macgtllivrazz,—an obvious wrong, since the original 
description of Fringilla macgillivrat’ was based exclusively on South 
Carolina specimens. 
The dark-complexioned Seaside Sparrows from the coast of Georgia 
and South Carolina are certainly very like those found on the western 
coast of Florida. If, as implied in the range accorded to A. m. pentnsule 
by the A. O.U. Check-List, they are identical, and if MacGillivray’s Finch 
is to be revived, then the name macgill/vraii will have to supplant 
peninsule. In any case, the Louisiana Seaside Sparrow, recognized as a 
valid subspecies in the Eighth Supplement to the A. O. U. Check-List, 
remains without a name.— WALTER Faxon, Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 
The Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus) at Middletown, R. I.— 
I shot an adult male Seaside Sparrow on the Second Beach Marshes at 
Middletown, R.I., on May 31, 1897, therefore confirming Mr. Reginald 
Heber Howe, Jr’s. supposition that they breed there. (See Auk Vol. 
XIV, page 219.) This makes three birds of this species that I have taken 
on these marshes. — EDWARD STURTEVANT, Boston, Mass. 
Breeding of the Seaside Sparrow in Massachusetts.—On July 17, 
1896, I took a set of four partly incubated eggs of the Seaside Sparrow 
(Ammodramus maritimus), together with the female bird, at Westport, 
Mass. The nest was cleverly hidden within a tussock of the salt marsh. 
The Seaside Sparrow is not rare as a summer resident in the Westport 
River marshes. It is, however, rather colonial, and confines itself closely 
in the breeding season to certain sections of the marshes. —J. A. FARLEY, 
Newton, Mass. 
Bachman’s Sparrow in Virginia. — On May 12, 1897, while collecting 
on a slope along the Blackwater Creek in West Lynchburg, Campbell 
County, Mr. John W. Daniels, Jr., of Lynchburg, collected two specimens 
of Peucea estivalis bachmanit, together with the nest and five eggs well 
advanced in incubation. Hewrites: ‘‘ The nest was on the ground among 
the roots of a tuft of grass and well concealed by the numerous grass 
tops which overhung it. It was quite domed, with the entrance facing 
the southeast and was composed chiefly of grasses, strips of weed bark 
and weed stalks, lined with fine grasses and a few light colored rootlets.” 
Mr. Daniels kindly presented the male to me (No. 4571, W. P. Coll.). It 
is in very fair plumage, being very much less worn than the Maryland 
specimen obtained by Mr. Figgins, which is now in the U.S. Nat. Mus. 
Collection. This record adds a species to the Virginia avifauna and 
doubtless it will be found to occur in summer over most of the eastern 
portion of the State. — WiLL1Am Parmer, Washington, D. C. 
